Crystal Reports Administration: Taming Network Demons

In the many years we have been doing business, we've encountered many customers whose support issues have nothing at all do with our products. Instead, they have network deficiencies that are giving them major headaches. In this article, we'll highlight some things that may be tanking your best efforts.

If you have a network specialist on staff or if your company retains such a person, consider yourself very lucky. Many Crystal Reports administrators are also the default IT administrator in an organization that's gone light on IT investment but heavy on its use.

Here's a short list of some of the more common network deficiencies:

• Incorrect switch selection. Properly addressing this area would require a separate article. But such things as using non-industrial components or using an unmanaged switch where a managed one is really required just begin to break the ice on this topic.
   
• Outdated hardware, software, or firmware. This is a common cause of "data dropouts." And if you are finding that the network "locks up" sometimes, start checking revision dates on everything in the network. With routers and switches, this is especially important.
   
• Outdated cabling. That Cat 4 cabling was great when it was put in, a decade ago. But today, you have far more data going across your network. Take a serious look at using fiber for your backbone and major trunks. Any time there's trenching or excavation at your facility, lay fiber cable before backfilling--that makes the fiber installation almost free.
   
• Degraded cabling. Do you have a qualified testing firm conducting insulation resistance tests and network cabling analysis?
   
• Degraded physical connectors and terminations. Do you have a qualified testing firm conducting infrared testing and low ohm tests (typically with a multifuction megohmeter) on your cabling annually?
   
• Degraded electrical infrastructure. Power anomalies can cause network equipment to malfunction. It doesn't cost much to have a qualified testing firm conduct a power analysis for harmonics, voltage waveform distortion, current waveform distortion, high power factor, and low voltage on an annual basis. Better yet, install a power analyzer that looks at these things every minute of every day, automatically.
   
• Grounding and bonding problems. If you have a bunch of ground rods driven in various places, this is a sign of a major problem. You should have your earthing at a single point, only. The earth is not a bonding jumper. and it's bonding that does the real work. A ground rod, by itself, doesn't provide the "grounding" (bonding) called for by electrical theory. See IEEE-142 for more information. Or go to http://www.ecmweb.com and search for "earth is not a bonding jumper."
   
• Poorly structured configuration, overall. This is a very common problem. Designing a network is much like designing a database. You have to identify several major items, upfront. Simply throwing it together ad hoc, while a common practice, is ultimately a very costly way to provide a system that performs poorly and eventually becomes a reliability liability.
   
• Subnets not properly divided and assigned. Keeping things in their proper "containers" provides many benefits. Not doing so results in chaos and poorly utilized network resources.
   
• Multiple physical networks instead of virtual ones. While not in itself a performance problem, this practice inevitably leads to higher costs, varying upgrade levels, administrative inefficiencies, and other problems. Right from the start, it incurs far higher cost per square foot, higher design costs, and higher maintenance costs. Many facilities trim maintenance costs by simply not doing the recommended maintenance. This inevitably leads to network performance and reliability problems.

Here, we've highlighted some of the network issues that can make your reporting system look bad if they aren't addressed. Of course, if your reporting system looks bad then you look bad. That can't be good for your career.

You should now be keenly aware that your network infrastructure isn't something you can take for granted. Along the same line of thought, you can't take your reporting system for granted either. For physical infrastructure, there are excellent tools available for detecting and correcting problems. It only makes sense, therefore, to have such a tool for your reporting system. That tool is Report Analyzer.

Report Analyzer for Crystal Reports automatically detects potential performance issues in your Crystal Report design settings--including record selection formulas, grouping options, and database options. Now you can improve report reliability and maintenance, speed development and maintenance, improve resource utilization, decrease infrastructure load, and manage projects better.

You may be thinking that you don't have time to address these things:

• "It's all I can do just to keep up with report requests." If that's the case, use a Crystal Report Scheduler.
• "We don't have the budget, because we are adding new users and the license fees are killing us." We hear that all the time, and it's actually good news for us. Why? Because we offer an outstanding Crystal Reports Viewer that offers you a very low cost per seat.
• "My management just doesn't understand. They'll never pay for these things." They are paying now--with downtime, suboptimal reporting, and other costs you can quantify and present to them. You need Mindconnection's Project Funding Course.
• "I'm constantly putting out fires. That's all I have time for." You need Mindconnection's Time Management Course.
• "I'm tied up in meetings, most of the day. This doesn't leave much time for anything else." You need Mindconnection's Effective Meetings Course.
• "I hear what you're saying, but I am just not very good at presentations. I can't make a convincing pitch to management. You need Mindconnection's How to Give Winning Presentations Course.

You have plenty to think about, now, and plenty of resources for moving forward. There is no time like the present, so get started today.

This article is copyrighted by Crystalkeen, Mindconnection, and Chelsea Technologies Ltd. It may be freely copied and distributed as long as the original copyright is displayed and no modifications are made to this material. Extracts are permitted. The names Crystal Reports and Seagate Info are trademarks owned by Business Objects.